a day of canning

One of my favourite things about the fall is the ensuing harvest!

Yesterday was our second annual canning extravaganza. A group of my friends come together, everyone bringing bits and pieces for the day and then we mass produce our preserves and split everything at the end. Last year we canned Spicy Pickled Beans, Peaches, Hot Pepper and Garlic Jelly (courtesy of Fiber at 28 cooks) and a variety of jams. Now we loved everything but the jam. Collectively as a group we don't eat enough jam to warrant the volume we created...and truly you can only give away so much!

This year we repeated the pickled beans, and garlic jelly (too late for the peaches in our part of the world) and added garlic dill pickles to our repertoire. The most time consuming part of the day was pealing the garlic. Other than that, we were fairly efficient and were pleased with the results. Special thanks to Brent for playing photographer!

Below are all the recipes we used and the quantities that we used to make enough for 4 couples (no kids!).

Spicy Pickled Beans Ingredients

20 x 500 mL jars
9 lbs Young green beans
20 long, thin red chilies (cut into eighths)
80 large Garlic cloves (4 per jar)
1/4 tsp per jar Peppercorns (white, black, green or a mixture)
1/4 cup loosely-packed fresh dill sprigs per jar
12 + 1/2 cup water (12 ½ cup)
12 + 1/2 cup white vinegar (12 ½ cup)
1 1/4 cup table salt

Directions

1. Trim and strings from the beans. Rinse well and set aside.
2. Peal and prepare garlic, slice hot peppers (make sure to wear gloves, nasty burns can ensure if you aren't careful!)
3. Sterilize jars and lids in not quite boiling water. When jars are cool enough to handle, fill each upright with beans until they are snug. Insert chilies and garlic cloves (preferably around outside so they can be seen). Divide peppercorns and dill among jars.
4. Separately bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil in a non-reactive sauce pan. Ladle the hot brine over the beans leaving about 1/2-inch head space.
5. Wipe jar edge clean and screw on sterilized lid and band according to manufacturers instructions.
6. Process in a boiling water bath for 12 minutes (no more, or you get soggy beans!). Remove and allow to cool completely at room temperature away from drafts.
7. Check lids to make sure proper seal has been attained.
8. Store for at least six weeks before using to allow flavours to develop. - YUM - so good with Caesars or just on their own.

Hot Pepper and Garlic Jelly
30 x 250 mL jars

6 red bell peppers, minced
4 cups fresh mix hot peppers, chopped
2 cups minced garlic
6 cups white vinegar
24 cups sugar - I know that is so much!
8 tsp cracked black pepper
4-5 pkt liquid Certo (4 for a more liquidy jelly and 5 for a little more strength to it)

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in large saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring often - watch though, because once this comes to a boil, it is a little temperamental.
2. Boil for 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and add Certo. Stir well.
3. Pour into sterilized jars and cover with prepared lids to seal (specific canning instructions are below)

*The easiest way to can is this - wash and dry canning jars thoroughly. Place lids and rings in a pot of barely simmering water. Once jelly is ready, fill a jar, leaving about a 1/4" headspace. With tongs, remove lid and ring from water, place on jar, and tighten, although not all the way. Turn jar upside down on a dishtowel. Repeat with remaining jars. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Turn upright and allow to seal. Tighten rings on all jars. If any of the jars don't seal, simply store in the refrigerator once cool. The other jars can be stored in a pantry for 8 months to a year, if it lasts that long.

A special thank you to Fiber for this great recipe. It is amazing with crackers and cheeses, mixed in cream cheese as a dip, my mom even uses it with sausage rolls. I imagine spring rolls would be nice with it too!

Garlic Dill Pickles
28 x 1 L jars

30 lbs fresh pickling baby cukes
13 1/2 cups vinegar
45 cups (11 Litres + 1 cup) water
3 3/8 cups pickling salt
10 Bunches of dill
Bowl of peppercorns (1/4 tsp per jar)
140 peeled whole garlic cloves

Directions:

1. Sterilize canning jars in a hot oven.
2. Scrub cucumbers in cold water until clean.
3. Bring a large vat of water, enough to cover all the cucumbers, to a boil.(I think we used about 30 Liters to cover up the cukes in the sink).
4. Pour boiled water over cucumbers in a well cleaned and rinsed sink and let sit for 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile peel garlic, set aside peppercorns, clean and separate out dill bunches.
6. In another pot add vinegar, water, salt to a boil - DO NOT over boil or salty pickles will be had by all
7. Pull hot jars from oven and to each jar add a handful of dill (or more if you like dilly-ious pickles),5 cloves garlic, and peppercorns.
8. Tightly pack jars with hot pickles - this turned into a race for us and was lots of fun to see which way worked best!
9. Fill each jar with hot/boiling brine (~2 cups per jar), leaving 1/2" headspace.
10. Adjust lids/rings and seal tightly - no processing needed.

A big thank you to my good friend, Tlell for this recipe she has shared. She and her mom make these pickles and as a receiver of such a nice treat, I must be sure to pass along credit where credit is due!

daring baker's challenge: lavash crackers + dips

This has to be a record fast post. First of all I am up against the clock deadline of the Daring Bakers Challenge to post today. Second of all, we had company surprise us and drop in (and they are still here!) I'm not very good with that. I like notice and to feel prepared. It's not even making sure the house is tidy, it's just my mindset...

Anyhow as I write this the crackers are baking. This month's challenge was Lavash Crackers, a first for the Daring Bakers, courteousy of bakers from the "alternative baking list", Natalie from Gluten A Go Go and Shel of Musings From the Fishbowl teamed up to bring us a two-part challenge. After months of rich cakes, and involved recipes, this was lovely. Quick easy and you have everything you need in your pantry. The second part of the challenge was to create a topping or dip that was vegan friendly. Because I am up against the clock, I had to make something quick and easy (sorry!) and insert hummus. Yum!

For a great look at lots of delicious savoury niblets check out the Daring Baker's Blog Roll. And for the recipe, visit Natalie (Gluten A Go Go) and Shel (Musings From the Fishbowl). One thing I have noticed about this recipe is that the thinner you can roll the dough, the better it is. I thought I had rolled it out enough, but I just peaked in the oven and it resembles pita more than crispy crackers. Over at A Whisk and Spoon, she suggested rolling the dough with a pasta machine on the setting for lasagna - BRILLIANT! Now if only I had a pasta machine... next time, more muscles!

(worst picture ever!)

Hummus Ingredients
1 can drained chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini paste
5 cloves of roasted garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp sour cream (not necessary, but a nice touch if you are ok with making this non-vegan)
salt to taste

Directions:
Take all ingredients, blend until creamy and ready to eat in a food processor. And you are done!

veggie stock

A while ago I read a post somewhere that suggested keeping veggies that weren't quite perfect, but still good and throwing them into a freezer bag to reserve for a veggie stock. Kind of like catching the veggies before they need to head to the compost. Over about a month and ago I started do it: tips of veggies, left overs etc. And below is the result, a combination of celery, carrots, onions, beans, even tomato slices! I know, I know... not very appealing!

Ingredients:
1 large yellow onion
1 head garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large freezer bag of collected frozen vegetables
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Slice the large onion into large pieces.
   
2. Peel and coarsely chop a head of garlic.
3. Heat olive oil in dutch oven, sauté onions and garlic until lightly browned.
4. Add frozen vegetables.
5. Fill with water until just covering vegetables.
6. Add bay leaves.
7. Add 1 tbsp pepper corns
   
8. Allow to simmer for at least one hour.
9. Add a few pinches of salt.
10. Strain stock threw either cheese cloth or a coffee filter.
11. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days.

wacky wedding cake

Good friends of mine eloped a few weeks back. No one knew, no one, not even their parents...so when they came home and told everyone, it was quite the surprise. Needless to say we wanted to have a small celebration for them. So it was dinner out, a little prosecco and a cake, add the newly weds and it was a great time with friends. The cake below was super easy to make - maybe a little too easy for a wedding cake. It is a chocolate vegan cake, with cherry brandy sprinkled on the layers, cherry pie filling between the layers and then iced with swiss meringue (from last month's Daring Baking Challenge)

This cake recipe was from my mom, she always called it Wacky Cake, it must have been called that because there was no egg or milk in it. Anyhow the great thing about this cake is that at almost any time you have all of these ingredients on hand. The recipe below is enough to make a 2 6" cakes plus 2 ramikens of cake.

Cake Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon vinegar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup cold water

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt

2. Make three wells in the flour mixture. Put the vanilla in one, in another the vinegar, and in the third the oil. Pour the cold water over the mixture and stir until moistened.

3. Evenly distribute the batter into 2- 6 inch round cake pans (I had a nice small spring form pan that I used) and into 2 small greased ramikens.

4. Bake at 350°F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it springs back when touched lightly.
   
   
5. Once all the cakes have baked and are out of the oven, allow to cool for about 15 minutes and then turn onto colling racks.
   
   
6. Once completely cooled slice the two larger cakes horizontally so that you now have 4 layers plus the two ramikens. Trim any mounds on the cake to be sure that it is level.
   
   
7. Drizzle cherry brandy on all the layers
   
   
8. Begin stacking the cake, adding some filling to one side of the layer, and some of the swiss meringue butter cream to the bottom of the next layer, continue for all the large layers. For the small ramiken layers I cut a "cork" out, added some filling, trimmed the cork and then topped off the mini cake with it.
   
   
9. I took the larger set of cakes and the smaller set and treated them like two separate cakes until right at the end.
   
   
10. Crumb coat both cakes. Refrigerate until the base layer of icing is set.
    
    
11. Ice a final top layer.
    
    
12. Optional --> Take ribbon of your choice and add to bottom of each cake. Hold in place with pins at the back of the cake.
    
    
13. Stack cakes and adorn as you choose.